HopeHealth Breaks New Ground

posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2014

HopeHealth, a federally qualified health center (FQHC) based out
of Florence, SC hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for their new
facility on Wednesday, August 20th at 2:00 pm at 360
North Irby Street in Florence. Among those providing remarkswas
Honorable James E. Clyburn, 6th Congressional District
of South Carolina, U.S. House of Representatives.

From its founding as a grass roots nonprofit in 1991 until
today, HopeHealth has been committed to providing excellent care to
patients from all across the Pee Dee Region. Today, they
provide primary health care to more than 31,000 patients throughout
11 locations in Florence, Clarendon and Williamsburg
Counties. Their diverse patient population includes customers
from all cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds. As a FQHC,
they are able to offer reduced fees to the uninsured through a
sliding fee scale.

HopeHealth services include but are not limited to family health
care, internal medicine, pediatrics, certified diabetes center
services, nutritional services, behavioral health, infectious
disease care and medical massage. With more than 34
physicians and nurse practitioners located across three counties,
they provided 110,918 medical visits in 2013.

In 2012, HopeHealth was one of three South Carolina health
centers to be awarded a $5 million capital grant from Health and
Human Services. The original grant called for HopeHealth to
expand their current location by adding a three story building to
their site at 600 East Palmetto Street. In 2013, Mayor Wukela
along with other influential Florence leaders approached HopeHealth
about the possibility of moving the project to the former Bush
Recycling grounds. The City of Florence, Congressman James E.
Clyburn and the Drs. Bruce and Lee Foundation had already made
significant contributions toward the clean-up of the
property. The City generously offered to donate the property
to HopeHealth, and they began the process of seeking approval from
the federal government to change the location of the
facility.

After about a year of logistical work and approval processes
around officially obtaining the land, HopeHealth is ready to begin
construction of the new facility. Demolition of three
structures on the property was recently completed and the start of
site work will take place in August; construction will begin in the
fall. The first phase of the facility will be completed in
summer/fall of 2015 and will include close to 50,000 square feet of
medical space and administrative offices.

This special event was amidst a few other community events
HopeHealth hosted in their service areas to recognize National
Health Center Week. For more information, visit hope-health.org or
call 843-667-9414.